"Wholesome. Honorable. True Believers. Men like Tom Campbell, who would never lead us astray. His pedestal so high," begins the spot, lampooning Campbell's claims that he's the best positioned in the GOP field to deal with issues such as the economy and the deficit.

The ad shows a sheep being hoisted into the sky on a marble pedestal, only to come crashing down after lightning strikes.

The tumbling sheep fades into a shot of Campbell and a male narrator booms: "Tom Campbell: fiscal genius?"

It then rattles off a long list of attacks on Campbell's fiscal record, but the main takeaway is the label for Campbell that the Fiorina campaign hopes sticks: "FCINO: Fiscal Conservative In Name Only."

"It's certainly gotten a lot of people's attention," said Fiorina spokeswoman Julie Soderlund. "That's the purpose, being shocking, edgy, to produce something that people are talking about and something relatively inexpensive to produce."

That mission was quickly accomplished. The ad, which was released on www.fcino.com, attracted immediate attention from the blogosphere and Twitterverse.

GOP strategist Patrick Ruffini, who has been openly critical of Fiorina's candidacy, lambasted the ad in a series of tweets, comparing it with the "Dean Scream," the outburst often pegged as the beginning of the end of Howard Dean's insurgent 2004 presidential bid.

"The last time a campaign put demon eyes in a commercial, it lost by 13 points," he wrote. "Also, Campaign 101, you never put yourself in an attack ad. Particularly an attack ad that will probably be on Leno tonight," he added.

But the Fiorina campaign is pleased that the ad is generating buzz and highlighted Campbell's record as the state finance director and his previous proposal to raise California's gas tax by 32 cents.

"He is a fiscal liberal," Soderlund said.

In an e-mail to supporters Wednesday evening, the Campbell campaign responded, "Carly's ad likens fiscal conservatives to sheep, and Tom to a demon sheep, without mentioning a single federal issue or proposing a single solution to America's economic woes.

"When you view the 'weirdest campaign attack ad ever,' you'll know why it's being called 'clumsy,' 'over-the-top,' 'monstrous,' 'painful' and 'a source of ridicule for bloggers,'" the campaign wrote. Campbell, a former U.S. House member, has traveled the state highlighting an internal poll that shows him with a 2-to-1 advantage over Fiorina.

Fiorina and Campbell are running against state Assemblyman Chuck Devore for the chance to take on Sen. Barbara Boxer in November.